It wasn't me you mentioned good G.P. crest is hard to find. In fact, nearly all G.P. crests need to be soaked and placed on either a glass or hard plastic surface until dried to remove curling or bending of the stem that occurs in shipping and packaging. Any temperature water will do; but do remember to pull the individual crest feathers off the full crest before putting them in the soak. You need to make sure that you thoroughly saturate the crest feathers.

And an awful lot of crest feathers need to be washed to remove the dirt and bird oils that are on them. This is done during the soad by adding Synthrapol (my favorite) or clear dishwashing liquid or Woolite to the soak water and letting them soak for a few hours. Don't forget to rinse them to remove the soap or detergent before placing them on the glass to dry.

Another very useful "trick" for tying G.P crest feathers is to nick the feather with your thimb nail to keep the crest feather in the contour of the wing.